Best food for clown loaches

The forum for the very best information on loaches of all types. Come learn from our membership's vast experience!

Moderator: LoachForumModerators

Loachloach
Posts: 787
Joined: Mon Nov 05, 2012 10:11 pm

Best food for clown loaches

Post by Loachloach » Fri Jan 16, 2015 9:47 pm

Hey.

I was wondering what do you guys think is the best food for clown loaches?If you've kept clown loaches for years, what was the best food routine you think?

I've always fed mine mostly New Life Spectrum granules and they love it, they go up to my hand for them. I can't complain, they've been healthy from day one and have bright colours. My problem is I don't have access to live foods at all, none of the shops here sell them and it would probably be great to give them a taste of nature, but I can't. Maybe I can try starting a culture of grindal worms if I can get it, would that be a good thing?
I don't know if I am depriving mine from good nutrients because of that... or not.

I've tried frozen foods like blood worms, brine shrimp and for some reason my clowns aren't mad about them at all but they'd go nuts over New Era Plec pellets for example and spirulina sticks, they fight over them and it's great fun watching.
I tried to feed them defrosted prawns and although they'd go for them... from time to time, they almost don't recognize them as food but my common pleco loves the prawns, so do my platies who tear them down like piranhas. So it's odd the clowns don't exhibit the same behaviour although I've seen plenty of videos to say the contrary.
Maybe mine just never got the taste for such food?

I read somewhere about mussels but I haven't tried it.

What do you feed as a staple and what easy snacks can I incorporate into the routine that doesn't involve live food but has sufficient nutrient content suitable for clown loaches?

Hainguyen
Posts: 31
Joined: Fri Nov 14, 2014 11:55 pm

Re: Best food for clown loaches

Post by Hainguyen » Fri Jan 16, 2015 11:19 pm

I feed my clown loach: blood worm, frozen ciclid delight cube, beef heart, prism shrimp, plankton, frozen cube Krills, cucumber, dungeon crab meat claw, snails, scallop, clam, monster pellet and sinking wafers from hikari, and sinking pellet from new life spectrum.

They like to eat the most are blood worm, beef heart, crab meat, snails, scallops, and monster pellet and sinking wafers from hiraki.

They seem not to like krills. Sometime they barely touch frozen krill cube, and taking forever to eat up sinking pellet from new life spectrum.

User avatar
redshark1
Posts: 585
Joined: Sun Dec 26, 2010 6:58 am
Location: Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, Great Britain.

Re: Best food for clown loaches

Post by redshark1 » Sat Jan 17, 2015 12:54 pm

I feed a wide variety of foods and their favourites are various sinking pellets, well-soaked freeze-dried shrimp and thawed and rinsed frozen bloodworm.

Thanks for the reminder about the mussels, I haven't got round to trying them yet but will experiment.

Two recent successes are JMC catfish pellets which sink immediately and Tetra Prima.

Its great to watch them hunt down Tetra Prima as it floats at first and gradually sinks! This has been an outstanding success.

I feed twice a day but save the Tetra Prima until the evening when I have more time to watch them.

None of my inexpert feeding has seriously compromised my Clown Loaches which are now 21 Years of Age.
6 x Clown Loaches all 30 years of age on 01.01.2024, largest 11.5", 2 large females, 4 smaller males, aquarium 6' x 18" x 18" 400 ltr/90 uk gal/110 US gal. approx.

NancyD
Posts: 1608
Joined: Thu Jan 05, 2006 9:17 pm
Location: SF bay area,US

Re: Best food for clown loaches

Post by NancyD » Sat Jan 17, 2015 11:10 pm

I never let my clowns get picky about food. I fed flake, pellets, wafers, fresh, freeze dried & frozen worms, homemade sea food mix, etc. I also made an attempt to feed vegetables at least 2 or 3 times a week, for their fun & nutrition but also to protect my plants from hungry loaches. They really seemed (at least a little) to be omnivores, romaine, zucchini & peas were always popular but other fruit & veg were sampled...it's all good! I miss my clowns!
Image

Botiadancer
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2015 3:15 pm

Re: Best food for clown loaches

Post by Botiadancer » Sat Jan 17, 2015 11:50 pm

My current loaches are 10 years old... at least. I bought my first loaches 20 years ago.
These days I feed New Life Spectrum granules... and algae wafers... and flakes. They love shrimp pellets for bottom feeders. Swim around the tank with them like they're smoking a cigar. Just bought some earthworm flakes - I'm sure they will eat those... they seem to eat anything. Of course they love their WORMS on occasion. Anyone feed them snails?
Last edited by Botiadancer on Sun Jan 18, 2015 1:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Bas Pels
Posts: 360
Joined: Sat Nov 30, 2013 9:08 am

Re: Best food for clown loaches

Post by Bas Pels » Sun Jan 18, 2015 4:18 am

My clown tank was heavily invested with snails when I got them, and in a day or 2 these were gone

I have managed to feed them snails a few times since, but I never saw one of the snails crawling. Obviously, they must like these snails very much.

But feeding snails implies breeding snails, and while that is not exactly hard (one needs a tank with snails and overfeed it) it is still against my feeling to overfeed a tank. And I have the tank primarily for other fishes.

But I think I can manage to feed them a 30 snails every fortnight or so

Loachloach
Posts: 787
Joined: Mon Nov 05, 2012 10:11 pm

Re: Best food for clown loaches

Post by Loachloach » Sun Jan 18, 2015 8:21 am

Lots of ideas in here guys. Thanks.

Mine wiped out the snails in no time too and my other tanks are not nearly overrun by snails to be able to collect any regularly. But they surely love snails.

I feed vegetables and fruit as well because I have a pleco in there too who loves that. The clowns seem to prefer cucumber, peas and melon but then again the pleco is too quick and guards the veg until they are gone which is just a couple of hours. I put a couple of pieces of melon or cucumber sometimes on two sides of the tank and the pleco just keeps going from one to the other so the clowns give up competing with him.

I have Tetra Prima discus granules and have fed them these additionally to the New Life spectrum for the last year as they have higher protein content compared to New Life spectrum and I thought they'd be a good addition. All fish love them. I break down some between my fingers for the smaller fish which feed from the surface. I haven't fed flakes in years because they don't sink easily and my tanks are populated by bottom feeders mostly. I have lots of corys and kuhli loaches around.

I must try some mussels or clams and see how this goes because the prawns aren't that well accepted.

User avatar
mikev
Posts: 3103
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2006 6:06 pm
Location: NY

Re: Best food for clown loaches

Post by mikev » Sun Jan 18, 2015 9:31 am

Variety imho is what matters most... sorry for the comparison, but clowns are like pigs, they tend to eat everything... and brands do not matter all that much. Things that I feed them include Hikari Carnivore, Xtreme Monster and ?! large algae wafers .. the larger clowns like to swim around with wafers in their mouths.

On shrimp: try cocktail shrimp.
Maybe I can try starting a culture of grindal worms if I can get it, would that be a good thing?
Great thing for some other fish, good to have around if you are breeding, but imho useless for clowns... grindals are very small, clowns would not see them (unless your clowns are 1"... in which case "maybe"). I maintain a culture and use it to condition 1"-2" fish like killies and gobies. Actually, thank you for asking -- I realized that I never tried grindals on hillstreams, that would be interesting to try.

OTOH, I tried live white and bloodworms with clowns... those were really appreciated... too bad that I cannot maintain either culture myself, it is more difficult than grindals.

hth

Loachloach
Posts: 787
Joined: Mon Nov 05, 2012 10:11 pm

Re: Best food for clown loaches

Post by Loachloach » Mon Jan 19, 2015 3:12 am

Yes, grindal worms are too small but were the only type of live food that I maybe able to culture :roll: I guess it's a no then if they are that small.
On shrimp: try cocktail shrimp.

I think that's what I have.

User avatar
mikev
Posts: 3103
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2006 6:06 pm
Location: NY

Re: Best food for clown loaches

Post by mikev » Mon Jan 19, 2015 11:00 am

It is possible to cultivate larger worms, people do. The defining factor is the temperature, my fishroom is too warm for doing it.... but if you have a cool place in the house, you can try.

NancyD
Posts: 1608
Joined: Thu Jan 05, 2006 9:17 pm
Location: SF bay area,US

Re: Best food for clown loaches

Post by NancyD » Mon Jan 19, 2015 9:24 pm

I used to feed live white worms, they were popular with clowns & other fish & pretty easy to grow. I also tried red wiggler worms with less success for clown loaches, no matter how small the worms. It may be I didn't offer them often enough for them to really get the idea. I only offered live black worms a few times but they were well taken. I worried about introducing leeches or other contaminants & wasn't willing to try to culture them.
Image

Loachloach
Posts: 787
Joined: Mon Nov 05, 2012 10:11 pm

Re: Best food for clown loaches

Post by Loachloach » Tue Jan 20, 2015 10:00 am

There was an article somewhere from Diana Walstad on culturing black worms in a fish tank but I don't have any room for more tanks, but it's possible at home.
I might try and research the white worms as they are bigger than the grindals.

NancyD
Posts: 1608
Joined: Thu Jan 05, 2006 9:17 pm
Location: SF bay area,US

Re: Best food for clown loaches

Post by NancyD » Tue Jan 20, 2015 6:07 pm

I kept white worms in a plastic shoebox (with a few holes in the lid) in potting soil & fed oatmeal. They need to be cool, I kept the in the basement, so the hard part was remembering to feed them more than once a week when I did laundry, lol.
Image

Caudelia
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Jan 23, 2014 6:42 am

Re: Best food for clown loaches

Post by Caudelia » Wed Feb 04, 2015 7:09 am

I feed mine staple of tetra prima, they have tetra pleco wafers 3 times a week, bloodworm, shrimp, cucumber, they nibble at the marrow,

Clownloachman
Posts: 10
Joined: Sat Jan 24, 2015 10:12 am

Re: Best food for clown loaches

Post by Clownloachman » Wed Feb 04, 2015 8:06 pm

Prawns, courgette, cucumber, Hikari mini wafers always a favourite, bloodworm, live earthworms, mussels, crabstick, seafood roll, broccoli stalks, mushrooms, shrimp tablets, cauliflower, Mellon, bloodworm pellets, new era grazing rings, squid rings, peppers, pear, just a few things my lot will take to :-)

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 106 guests